Beneath the Surface: World War I Submarine Warfare from Robert M. Grant Collection

The academic and avocational pursuits of the faculty often reveal
curious and unsuspected combinations of interests. Robert M. Grant, Carl
Darling Buck Professor Emeritus in the Department of New Testament and
Early Christian Literature in the Divinity School, has spent a
distinguished career teaching and writing prolifically in the field of
early Christianity, touching on such subjects as the New Testament,
early Christian thought, patristics, and Gnosticism. Yet his earliest
publications, appearing in 1938 when he was twenty-one, were entitled
"Known Sunk: German Submarine War Losses," and "The Uses of Mines
Against Submarines." These articles point to another, less visible
interest, which began when he was nine years old. Grant maintained his
interest in submarines throughout his career, and wrote two
authoritative books on the subject as well as a number of articles. This
exhibition, which may surface as a surprise to some, is drawn from
Professor Grant's research collection, and is one of a series of
exhibits highlighting the breadth and variety of the University of
Chicago faculty's private collections.